NZTiger

All packed and one last look at the check list before we depart. We're meeting at the Royal Oak, Aston Abbotts (where else!) and the taxi picks us up @ 13:45. Terminal 5, Heathrow is our initial destination for the 18:35 flight to Hong Kong. We'll be flying on the new Airbus A380 so the trip has something new right from the start. "The Aston Abbotts and outlying areas formation drinking team" as we've been christened, consists of the following: Simon Guy Mike Bush Karl 'Karlos' Bickell Adrian 'Adie' Bystra Bob Chapman John 'Burgy' Burgin Due to land in Hong Kong at 14:10 local time. Let the tour begin!... read more

Well, the last two days have been excellent. Great weather and more good diving. The food has been very good and last night I had the the incredibly hot/spicy 'Tom Yam Goong' soup the lips have yet to lose some of the numbness but it was excellent. I'll post some more pictures on here when we get to Bangkok of sunsets, (more) fish! etc Today is our last day at Pimalai. We leave at 13:30 on the speedboat then minbus limo to Krabi airport then it's a 1 hour flight to Bangkok. We're staying there for 1 night then its a 13 hour flight home :-(... read more

Having sluiced away all the salt water I'd accumulated we made or way up to the Sea View at the top of the resort. We wanted to have scout out this restaurant for another night so it was a good excuse to sit at the bar and sip a Negroni. We made our way back to the seafood restaurant on the beach where we shared some excellent barbequed prawns and a whole silver snapper. The next day was a 'no dive day' so up at a reasonable time and off to the restaurant for breakfast. I won't bore you with the details, the only difference from Sunday was more sunshine and a lot hotter! In the evening we were eating at the Sea View restaurant - a change from seafood and Thai - but first we ... read more

We awoke on our first morning at Pimalai to a sound that brought fear into my heart... it was raining! This was not good, though at least we could still walk about in shorts and a t-shirt once it had stopped, which it did after 30 minutes. Sunday was the lazy day, after breakfast (excellent) we headed for the beach and despite the fact it was a little cloudy you still needed sun tan lotion to avoid being burnt (as I learnt to my cost!) The only other thing on the agenda was to seek out the dive centre. This was duly done in the afternoon and after the ever present form filling was complete I'd booked myself for 3 dives starting tomorrow. Later on it started to rain so we headed back to the room ... read more

Having consumed lunch we made our way back to the car and then it was off to the Elephant Sanctuary. This took about 30 minutes and the journey took us ever deeper into the rural backwaters of Thailand. We were now climbing above the plains and into the mountains that border Thailand & Myanmar (Burma) which made it so difficult to build the railway and cause so much suffering. When we arrived we were the only tourists there so without any waiting (apart from the opportunity to purchase some ripe Thai bananas - 20 Baht - approx 50p) the Mahout arrived atop the Elephant we were to ride. On her back was, what can only be described as, a garden seat sitting precariously on her shoulders. Luckily the park had provided platforms which we climbed so ... read more